Next on the painting table...

It's been a bit quiet here in my house for the last couple of weeks in terms of hobby progress. After knocking out Leman Russ over two weeks of evenings I was a bit hobbied out. But, gotta get back on the hobby horse at some point!

So, I thought I'd share what I am painting next: Plasma Gun Tactical Support Squad, 5-man rotor cannon squad and a couple of repair jobs.

Space Wolves Terminators

Just thought I'd share these guys with you.

I brought this squad when the cataphractii terminators were first released. I just love the aesthetic of the armour. When you've grown up reading Horus Heresy: Collected Visions over and over, this is what you want your terminators to look like.

I very rarely use terminators these days, which is why the squad hasn't grown. However, with a new found addiction to Zone Mortalis games, its gonna be terminators and boarding marines all the way!
How does the saying go, "assault marines in the field, boarding marines in the bedroom". Something like that I think...

Ah, yes, the reason I'm sharing them is that I have updated them. Rebased them, added some new decals and then some weathering powder and power weapon glowing bits. I still feel the bases need something though, a 40mm base for a terminator is too much really. I'll have a look at basing options, maybe some runes or something.

These guys faced their first opponents at Warhammer World on Sunday, against some lovely painted Thousand Sons owned by Jason.

 

The Wolves and Sons finally come in to contact in the underground catacombs of Prospero...

You might notice there's a few less Sons in this photo... But the Wolves are no where near the objective and it's the end of Turn 4....

 

Who needs fair odds...

Classic pincer movement, there's nowhere for the Wolves to turn!

Dave

fourdadsoftheapocalypse.blogspot.co.uk – A blog about Warhammer 40k and the Horus Heresy by four Dads

Leman Russ, Lord of the Rout

I finally finished Russ. Here he is! I'm looking forward to getting him out on the battle field now. Maybe I've finally got something that can slay Dad Rich's Sigismund (other than a Fellblade accelerator cannon to the face... followed by a demolisher cannon to the face... seemed to do the trick!)

Master of the Space Wolves Legion and Lord of icy Death World of Fenris, Leman Russ was an incomparable warlord, ferocious beyond measure and faultlessly loyal to the Emperor and his Imperium. Known as the Wolf King and the Lord of Winter and Ruin, as undoubtedly as savage as Leman Russ was, he was also wise beyond his Legion’s barbaric appearances and self-aware to a degree few guessed at, which made him doubly dangerous.

 At Prospero his loyalty and foresight were used against him by the machinations of Horus, as he was loosed upon his brother Magnus. What was to follow was one of the darkest hours of the Imperium’s history, as Space Marine was set against Space Marine in war unto the death. The Burning of Prospero was a conflict eclipsed only by the nightmare civil war that came after.

Fighting with a ferocity and skill far beyond anything human, Leman Russ wields the sword of Balenight, known as Mjalnar, an ancient blade whose dark legend stretched back to the Age of Strife; and Helwinter, Russ’ great frost axe, its murderous edge made with the kraken-teeth of a mighty beast Russ slew himself. His warplate is a suit of singular artificer power armour, incorporating unique exothermic field generators, otherwise unknown of in the Imperium’s arsenal of technology.
 

I really enjoyed painting this miniature, I really pushed my abilities. It is probably the most time I have spent on a single miniature for a long time, but I cut no corners and spared no expense in getting this to look how I wanted it to.

There looks like there are a lot of colours there, but it all ties together, yet stands out from the rest on the army in a good way. The basic palette is grey (armour and ruins), brown (fur and mud), gold (details) and red (cape, leather and blood), using a variety of shades of each. The spot colour is blue, used on the gems and differently on the power weapon's energy source. There are a lot of textures around the model and trying to do them all justice was difficult.

The runes, I wanted them to look like marble so I tried sponging. That didn't look quite right, so I added some layering, to look like the saw cuts you see in polished marble.

I'm happy with him anyway!

Comments and criticisms welcome. Fluff is from the Forge World Website.

Dave
 
fourdadsoftheapocalypse.blogspot.co.uk – A blog about Warhammer 40k and the Horus Heresy by four Dads

Leman Russ Update 2

Sorry it's been a bit quiet in my corner of the Dad camp, I've been busily working away on Leman Russ in my spare time. As I've not finished him, I haven't shared anything!

However, here's an update.

Usually I am looking for quick techniques that get my miniatures looking somewhere slightly better than table top standard, but this guy is the pinnacle of my army, and so he needs to be the pinnacle of my painting.

I'm trying all sorts of techniques I've never done before. Two that I'll share now are:

Hair: usually the hair on my minis is brown, black or bleached bone. The Forge World version of Leman Russ has blonde hair, so I thought I'd attempt it. The scheme I used is undercoat white, wash with Agrax Earthshade, wash with Lamenters Yellow. Using yellow on hair is my worst nightmare but I was assured by the Twitter crowd that this is how to do it. And I think it looks ok. I could have made it brighter I guess, but I only did one layer of white, so some of the grey base coat is still showing through.

Armour: usually I go for mechanicum standard grey base, then two dry brushes of successively lighter grey, then Agrax Earthshade wash. That looks good, but I wanted Leman Russ to stand out. The Forge World version has a slightly greenish tint, I wanted to go for a blue tint. So I went for the grey base and two-stage dry brush, then applied a 65:35 mix of Nuln Oil and blue glaze. I think it looks pretty good. It's not as blue as I wanted but I'm happy with it.

For the base I am going for white columns and brown earth to tie Russ in to the rest of my force.

I still have the skin, gold elements and weapons to go. Even the wolf pelts I am trying something different.

Next week I've arranged to meet a guy at Warhammer World for a game, so am also making sure I have the whole of that force painted up. It's a 1250pt Zone Mortalis game, which I'm looking forward to. Should be a good warm up for the game I've got planned with Dad Rich in December. I'll write up a short battle report.

Dave

fourdadsoftheapocalypse.blogspot.co.uk – A blog about Warhammer 40k and the Horus Heresy by four Dads

Space Wolves Progress Update - November

Just a quick one from me this week.

I started out with the intention of painting up my Fellblade.  was a bit bored of painting infantry (still so much more to go though... I am NOT buying any more until I have completed what I have...)...

But then got somewhat distracted!

I have actually made quite a bit more progress on Russ than this photo shows, but this was the last photo I took last night.

I've been looking around the web at what other people have been doing with him for a bit of inspiration, which has inspired to me to attempt a few new techniques. In particular I'm going for white marble on the stonework, and blonde hair, which these guys have done really well:

@atChrisMc

@DarkOneUK

fourdadsoftheapocalypse.blogspot.co.uk – A blog about Warhammer 40k and the Horus Heresy by four Dads

Burning of Prospero - First Impressions

I know we're late to the tale and there's been images of this game out there for weeks, but as a massive Space Wolves an I wanted to share my impressions of the Burning of Prospero box game

First Impressions
Wow that is a box of plastic crack! It looks even more rammed than Betrayal at Calth, although I'm sure they are about the same and it's just my imagination.

Marine Sprues
I'm loving the variety in helmet design but am surprised at the lack of torso plate variation, it's the opposite of the resin kit, but I guess that gives you a reason to still buy the resin kit and have double the combinations.
The crispness of the plastics matches that of the resin kits in my opinion, where as the Mk4 in BaC was a little bit off around the knees, these seem to equal the Mk3 resins. I think we all wondered if Mk3 was even possible in plastic due to the variety of textures but by breaking the leg and back pack components down, the designers have managed to get it spot on.
The weapons options are just as good as BaC. All the most popular are there but then there is still reason enough to buy the resin upgrade kits. It's a smart move.
My most favourite inclusion is the thunder hammer. I'll be adding some of those to my terminators I think.

Terminators
I was dubious about tartaros terminators. I had some of the resin ones when they first came out and wasn't keen. But these in the box, they are a long way away from those early resins, in terms of detail.
I was looking to swap these with Dad Rich, but I think I'll be keeping them. I'm going to build them up as heavy weapons support, then build my Cataphractii as close combat, I think.
There's a lot of options, and creating the sprue so that the power fists can be either power fists or lightening claws was another smart move by the Designers.

The Sisters.
the best comparison for these is the Space Marine Scout set. There's a lot of miniatures on not a lot of sprues. The Sisters themselves are lithe and delicate, akin to elder almost. I'm looking forward to putting these together and including them in my force as a small specialist ally contingent, as per the fluff.

Custodes
This sprue is ram-packed full of detail. Again, I'm looking forward to including them as a small force. I'll be building them with guardian spears, as per the fluff. Essentially, the Sisters and Custodes in my force will be as per the fluff and built as per the artwork in Visions of Heresy.

Characters
The characters are fantastic, extremely highly detailed.
Fell Hand will be the first of this set to be built and painted, I can tell you that now :-). The miniature itself blends the dark 30k imagery that FW have spent so long building up along with the 40k Space Wolves aesthetic which already exists without being too cartoonish (which I personally hate... those Wulfern are the epitome of all I hate about the way 40k has gone with the modelling). I especially love the right shoulder pad, very in keeping with Visions of Heresy (possibly the only reason I'm considering buying the Wulfern kit... anyone got any spare they fancy trading?).
the Space Wolves legion symbol is a great tie back to the early 1990's chapter icon.

Box Contents
The books, cards and instructions all seem to be printed and detailed equally as well as BaC. The quality is extremely high.
The decal sheet looks great, lots of choice, adding yet more options to Space Wolves heraldry when you're painting them up.
the building instructions look very detailed and easy to follow, which will be needed to build the Sisters and Custodes as they are new to the range.
The background book is, similar to that in BaC, in the same style as the FW big black books. I'm really excited to sit down with a cup of tea and finally read some of the Heresy fluff for the Space Wolves, as I have been all the other legions that have been included in the black books to date.

Game
I plan on playing a couple of games in the near future so will post up a review of that separately. The rules do look easily laid out like BaC though so I'm expecting a similar level of complexity.
the addition of D8, D10 and D12 does suggest a bit of spice to the mix though, so I'll keep you posted!

Summary
All in all this is a fantastic set. There's a good chance I'd buy another one of these, because its packed with miniatures in my favourite armour mark and then I would have full 10-man/lady squads of the sisters and custodies forces (I'm guessing 5-man squads aren't going to cut it when gaming).

I picked mine up from Warhammer World, because a) I'm lazy, b) I'm impatient, c) the Horus Heresy campaign weekend was on so I wanted a nosy and d) I was picking up my pre-ordered Leman Russ, but £95 is quite a price and there's plenty of places selling it cheaper, so that's where I think I'd pick my next box up from. Companies such as Alchemist Workshops are selling it at 20% off. At £76 a box, it sounds like an even better deal! Especially if you're splitting it with a friend, thirty-odd pounds would essentially get you twice as much as you get in a standard Space Marine tactical squad box for not much more.

What do you guys intend on doing with your set/ Have you played the game yet? Let us know in the comments below.

Dave

fourdadsoftheapocalypse.blogspot.co.uk – A blog about Warhammer 40k and the Horus Heresy by four Dads

The Wolves are... nearly here!

Well well well, it was a big weekend in Horus Heresy Land, especially for me with Leman Russ and the Burning of Prospero box coming along.

I've got my pre-order in, like everyone else I imagine, and I've booked Monday off. I don't usually get a day to myself but have been meaning to take one for a couple of weeks, so this is great timing!

My plan is to get Russ himself washed, stuck together and then at least base coated. I'm thinking of adding a couple of conversions to the model, if only because I imagine half the world will be buying this one and I want mine to look a little different. Any suggestions?

Look at this miniature though, how nice is that?!


I'll also be picking up the Burning of Prospero. I think I will be turning all of those Mk3 models in to Boarding marines, I want two squads of those in my army in total. The terminators I am hoping to swap with Dad Rich for his Cataphractii from Betrayal at Calth. If not, I actually kinda like them so may keep them or eBay them (I prefer the Cataphractii armour myself).

I do have one question, you could say it's a 'burning' question (we're dads, I can tell dad jokes...)
Is this guy the first 28mm scale space marine to have eyebrows sculpted on him?!


It won't really matter to me though as I'll be switching his head out for a helmet (I just can't do bare heads justice...).

That's it from me, just a short one today. Have you got your pre-orders in? What are your plans for the box set? Let us know in the comments below.

fourdadsoftheapocalypse.blogspot.com – A blog about Warhammer 40k and the Horus Heresy by four Dads

Progress - 19/10/2016

I must admit, it's been quiet here at Dad HQ. No one has really made any progress on anything this last week.

Yesterday I took the day off. I needed a day off after the last couple of weeks (5 birthday parties in 6 weeks! My toddler has a better social life than me!!). I decided to head over to Warhammer World and do some painting (as per the above, with a toddler at home, finding a quiet space for some time to myself for a couple of hours just ain't gonna happen). GW HQ is only 10 minutes from my house so shifting my painting tray there for the day isn't really a hardship.

Unfortunately, the lighting wasn't really that great. the painting desks are lined up against the edge of the main hall, so as you sit there, your body is between the lights and the desk, so whatever you're painting is in shadow. If you're reading this Warhammer World, please turn these desks around. No only will the light be better, but you can then watch what's going on around the hall whilst you paint. I know we're all geeks but we don't need to always sit with our backs to the crowd :-)

As a result, I didn't get much done at all on my Fellblade and Rhino

 

 

I'm thinking these are the last two things I'm going to get finished before Christmas. If I get time I'll also rebase my Landspeeders and Storm Eagle, so hat I can quickly tick another two units off the list.

 

That said, I'm also eagerly awaiting the release of Leman Russ and the Burning of Prospero this month. I really cannot wait to get my hands on Russ! As for the guys in the box set, I've decided to turn them all in to Boarding Marines, but am awaiting the re-release of the boarding shields (I'm wondering if they'll just make these out of plastic? They are pretty simple to do).

 

So, that's about it from us this week. Come back soon for a first look at Russ and the new boxed game. I'll do a review as soon as they are in my hands.

 

Dave 

Twitter Primarch Deathmatch result - Horus Lupercal v Leman Russ

"Mmmm donuts. Thank you Mr dinosaur and I love your purple spots....uh.....what?.....who?....oh sorry Deathmatch fans I appear to have dozed off! Have they finished circling each other yet? Oh and here's some action....yes Leman Russ has finally twigged that his pack isn't going to turn up because they're on their own in the arena and he's finally going on the offensive!"

"Horus is looking around for some help, but there isn't any. Has no one told him the rules?!"

"In goes Russ and wait, what is that he's doing? He's fishing something shiny and metallic out of his armour. He's stuffing it in his bolt pistol. It can't be! It is! He takes aim. Horus has realised what is going on and has started running!"

"Well now we see the true colours of the Warmaster. The shot rings out. Horus goes down.....and stays down. That was a great shot, right in the small of the back. Horus can't move and up comes Russ....He aims again this time for the heart. Ouch! That has to hurt."

"That's it folks. All it takes is 2 silver bullets and the big wolf is down."

"Well done Leman. Boring but well done!!!"

"OK Deathmatch fans, stay tuned for the draw for the last two quarter finals coming up soon."

Of Wolves and Witches....

I'm a massive Space Wolves fan, and I also have a fondness for the Thousand Sons (they were always loyal! Curse you Horus...), so with all the recent leaks, I am getting very excited for the last part of 2016.

In anticipation, I thought I'd map out what we have seen to date and what we know/think is coming!

Lets start early this year, when Forge World unveiled their Leman Russ WIP. Were we excited? Yes we were. Look at him! At this point in time I didn't realise that he was holding the Spear of Russ as well as his mighty sword. I bet Magnus is chuckling at that somewhere in the Warp. In The Battle of the Fang, it is revealed that Russ actually hated that spear...



Drip drip drip through the rest of the year and we've had both Space Wolves and Thousand Sons shoulder pads and transfer sheets. We've also had some Thousand Sons helmets and a Thousand Sons Contemptor dreadnought, which I was a bit surprised about. We had seen no rumours before this bad boy dropped! But still, its appearance stoked the fires further...


I love the metallic red paint scheme that FW have chosen for the Thousand Sons, it sets them apart from other red-armoured marines such as Blood Angels and Word Bearers. Unfortunately, without an airbrush I'm not sure I can replicate it, which is a shame.

Then this guy popped up on eBay...

There's speculation as to who it actually is, but my money is on a generic sorcerer. I imagine FW will want to do Ahriman in resin, as with the rest of the character series.

More recently we got a picture of a completed Russ. He really does look good. I notice that his armour is akin to Mk6 and he has the legion icon on his right shoulder pad. This may go some way to explaining why many of the legion icons on the Space Wolves transfer sheet are geared up for right-handed pads. Maybe there is a predominance of Mk6 armour in the legion? Back in Second Edition, the Wolves were generally modelled as having Mk6 (which is probably why I love it so much). We will have to wait and see...


From the braided hair to the dynamic pose, this guy is a space Viking through and through. I also imagine he gets angry and eats people who refer to him as a space Viking...
There is a small part of me that wishes his pose was more like that on the cover of Prospero Burns; brooding, but I like the pose never the less.



Lastly we have the leaked cover of November's White Dwarf, and isn't that a wet dream in paper format?! Wolves, Sons, plastic tartaros terminators, plastic Mk2 armour... man oh man I cannot wait for this.



Now, you'll have to excuse me. I'm just on my way to sell a couple of body parts to raise cash for this lot...

Dave

Zone Mortalis - Battle Report

This was a fight to take control of the Imperial Fists Frigate the New Dawn. A boarding assault was conducted by Bjorn Hammerwacker (sorry Dave couldn't remember his name! Edit: that wasn't his name, but it sounds cool so I'll roll with it... Dave) and his spear-tip force of wolfy space marines!

This was our first game of Zone Mortalis and as a result of spending time chatting about how much we liked narrative gaming when we met up earlier we came up with a decent spin on one of the Blood in the Void missions from HH Book III. The mission type was called wrecker and we selected to enact an assault on the bridge of a frigate. Dave wanted to attack (not typical at all of the wolfy fellows eh?) and so I obliged by setting up in defence of an Imperial Fist bridge.

The deployment saw the Imperial Fists take one board quarter (3ft x 4ft board) and the VIth Legion take the opposite one. The game itself indicated we should be dividing our forces into reserves, but we decided we wanted to just get bloody quickly and to engage full forces in a corridor jamming frenzy! So reserves were dispensed with.

However, the game was to start tensely with 'blip counters'. Remember the colonial marines in Aliens tensely scanning and seeing 'multiple' threat signals. Well we re-enacted this (its in the rules as an option to do this) by placing poker chips with a number on them down on the board instead of our units. My units were red and Dave's were white and we set up in our opposing quarters.

The units represented by the chips would not be revealed until they came within line of sight of another poker chip. We also added another twist, only half the 'blips' were real, the others were ghost signals created by the extreme radiation of a nearby star (Edit: it wasn't a star, the leaky radiation was down to the Imperial Fists' poor maintenance regime, not that they'll admit to it! Dave).

This created a cautious and tense start to the game - it really changed the dynamic of the first couple of turns. We were both faced with the challenge of trying to sneak our forces into the best position whilst not giving away which were real and fake. It also has you constantly thinking "am i sneaking up on his tactical marines, or is that blip a bloody dreadnaught!!" As you can see in the next shot we were tip toe-ing around...

Eventually though the poker chips came into view and these two legions were enjoined in combat! The Fists burst around the corner setting up a charge into Dave's Cataphracti - its hammer time! My Breacher Squad lines up to bolter Daves Breachers...

Edit: we also added the rule that breacher shields block line of sight, so you could use a squad to block against the enemy seeing your blip counter, meaning it would remain un-revealed for a little bit longer. This sort of thing summed up the way we tend to play games, if it sounds cool and reasonable then why not do it?! Dave.

Even though the Board isn't painted (it comes black from FW) you can get some really atmospheric scenes. Here my breachers are lead by my Praetor as they hold this corridor against the onslaught ion the Wolves!

Here my terminators are making short work of the Cataphracti but Dave's units are setting up for a counter assault!

In the end...
After several turns Dave managed to kill my Warlord (Ships Captain) which was the Primary Objective, and he nearly achieved the secondary objective of getting aboard the bridge (represented by the tile below and the large dice cube) with his sneaky sneaky units creeping around the edge of the conflict.

So what do we think of ZM?
The close quarter nature of ZM turns units that are ordinary on the big open battlefields into absolute killers in the confines of battleship and the fights were very quickly bloody affairs. I have to say this was a great entrance to the world of Zone Mortals and I can't wait to get painting the board and playing some more!

We played two games, the second of which was 500points and we finished in 45mins - this is really adding the chance to play atmospheric games, using your usual 30k/40k units in quick games. As we did, its possible to play these in an evening and have them influence a bigger game the following day!

Also for you modellers our there, FW dont produce much in the way of additional scenery so if you've ever wanted to do a 'bridge' scene for a cruiser this is your chance, and you get to bring it into your game.

Happy hobbying

Battle Report - Imperial Fists vs Space Wolves

Dads Rich and Dave played a game this weekend. Rich brought the Sons of Dorn, whilst Dave brought the sons of Russ. There was no real background to the story but maybe there was a misunderstanding between these two stubborn Legions as the Space Wolves headed back to Terra after the Battle of Prospero. The Imperial Fists halted them at the border, strictly following protocol. The Wolves had little patience after completing their cursed task. Tempers frayed, things got out of hand, and here's what happened next...

The game was 3000pts per side using Mission 4: Onslaught from the Horus Heresy Book 1. We felt the mission had some interesting set up rules and victory conditions:

We set up in opposing quarters, the each placed an objective in the opposition's deployment zone. The main aim of the game was to control that objective at the end of the game, with secondary objectives (see the above photo). Dad Dave won the roll to set up and go first, Dad Rich failed to seize the initiative, ending a long run of always going first, and setting the flavour for the ensuing game.

Armies:

Space Wolves - Dad Dave

Hvarl Red-Blade: Legion Praetor with thunder hammer and volkite serpent

Arne, bearer of the torch: Master of Signal

4x 10-man Legion Assault Squads

2x 5-man Tactical Support Squads, with melt-guns and mounted in rhinos

2x Spartan Assault Tanks

Fellblade

Imperial Fists - Dad Rich

Sigismund

Herald (Centurion)

10 Terminators (half THSS, half PFSB) + Apothecary

15 Breachers (Sgt w TH) + Apothecary + Spartan to transport them with the Sigismund

10 Breachers (Sgt w PF)

10 Tac Marines

1 Contemptor Mortis

3 x Quad Mortars

Turn 1

Dave: You get an extra victory point for anything killed in the first turn, so I was determined to make sure I achieved that. To make sure I got that point, I targeted the Fist’s contemptor with my Fellblade, which spectacularly exploded, with shrapnel taking out half of the Breacher squad it was standing next too! Excellent!
Everything else moved forward, in a sort of pincer movement around the hill in the middle of the board. With everything either in vehicles or with jump packs, the aim is to get as close to the enemy as quickly as possible. I aimed one of my melta-rhinos the Fist’s Spartan, hoping I could get around the flare shield. I left one of my assault squads spread out at the back behind my Fellblade, knowing that Rich had some deep-striking terminators to come in at some point.

Rich: Dave's firepower had left me reeling, but the Fists know better than to let an opening salvo scare them off and launched forward in the Spartan to meet there line, somehow it seemed as if that poor Spartan was taking on his entire line alone! But as he rolled forward the lascannons and quad mortars opened up in support and managed to kill a few marines and a rhino. Sigismund and his squad burst from the Spartan and took on Dave's Spartan. I was about to find out that Spartan's were impossible for me to hurt and despite slapping 10 melts-bombs on it and whacking it with a TH a few times the damn thing wasn't even shaken!

Turn 2
Dave: Rich busted open one of my melt-rhinos, which was a bit annoying, but both of the rhinos managed to protect their occupants this round.

Rich: Sigismund and the Breachers manage to wipe one of Dave's assault units and the Terminator Deep Strike arrives, they use their turn to shoot at the delta squad nearest too but only kill one dude! Dave turns the guns of the Fellblade on the Spartan and....no more Spartan!

Turn 3
Dave: I continued to target the Fist’s lascannon squad, who continued to survive and make their leadership tests! Those Fists really are the stubborn Sons of Dorn!!
The Fist’s terminator squad engaged the last of my full strength assault squads and wiped them out to a man, who subsequently fell back 19”, and then continued to fall back for the rest of the game. He’d obviously lost his nerve and will be disciplined for it later… however, his continued survival did deny the Fists a valuable VP.

Rich: The Breachers fight with the Spartan goes on, I have thrown over 35 meltabombs at it but totally failed to roll a single 6 for penetration in that time! That armoured ceratite is paying off! The terminators and Sigismund are wandering around looking for infantry to massacre, my lascannons pick off the odd target but are surprisingly ineffective, probably because up until Turn 4 I had forgotten they had Tank Hunter USR!

Turn 4

Dave: Turn 4 it suddenly occurred to me that if I parked my Fellblade on top of the objective in my quarter, there was no way Rich could get anything within 2” to contest it! Genius! With 12 hull points, nothing was going to shift it. So that’s what I did.
I fired the demolisher cannon at the Fist Terminators and killed six. Finally, I remembered where the strengths of the demolisher cannon lie…

Rich: I have decided to totally ignore his Fellblade, with 12 HPs, armoured ceramite etc I have nothing to hurt it really so the terminators (minus a few brothers thanks to the Demolisher) set off toward Dave's other Spartan and his Warlord. Sigismund starts to run across to join them. If we can't damage the Spartan we may at least be able to give the Warlord a headache as we hammer on the sides. 

Herald - I took this guy to lead my terminators and wasn't disappointed. He looks cool waving a banner and the +1 to WS he gives everyone around him makes sure my Terminators slaughter anyone they meet. Shame they didn't have any more infantry left around them by this point...

Turn 5

Dave: I finally took Sigismund down with two more lascannon shots to the face. I cannot believe how tough that man is! Rich had another go at melt-bombing my Spartan.
For the fourth turn in a row the Fists failed to take all of its hull points. I’m glad Rich told me to by that Ceramite armour now! My other Spartan took out the remainder of the Fist’s terminator squad
Rich killed off the remainder of my assault squads. They hung in well and generally did what I needed them to do. I’m glad I split them in to 4 ten man squads now rather than 2 twenty man squads.

Rich: Sigismund dies in a desperate attempt to reach Dave's Warlord who is bravely hiding on his own in a Spartan. They only know he's in there because of the smell and constant crys of "Mummy! Get me out of here"!

Im hanging on here by skin of my teeth here, my hope is to deny Dave the VPs on the obj on my side and to try and keep the unit kills equal.

Oh, rolled another 12 melta bombs on Dave's Spartan....no 6's!

Dave rolls for Turn 6.....rolls a 2! End Game, time for tea and medals!

Result
Wolves: 7VPs Fists: 5VPs

Commentary

Dave: the game was fun, and the first I’ve won in a long time. When you analyse it, it was actually closer than you think, the difference only being the +1VP in Turn 1 for destroying a unit, and +1VP for Slaying the Warlord. And Sigismund really made me work for that one!
No one got the +5VP for claiming the opponent’s objective, but that could have swung the game the other way if the Fists had managed it.

Man of the match for me is the Spartan that survived 4 rounds of melta-bombs. That just goes to prove how tough those transports are! Glad I got me two of them.

I liked the way my army worked, in a way that I have not liked my army composition for a long while. It’s a good mix of fast-moving troops and armoured might. Just the way I imagine the Wolves like to fight. Get up close and do as much damage as quickly as possible. I’ll definitely be working with variations of this force going forward. The only change might be to actually mount something in the Spartans. That was a bit of an oversight, but a happy one, and they did keep both of my HQs safe for the entire game.

I imagine the melta-armed tactical supports squads mounted in Rhinos are a bit like the fire ships Vikings would send towards the enemy. The rhinos managed to survive long enough to get the heat to where it needed to be.

The Fellblade was as good as I hoped. I’ve wanted one of those ever since seeing one in Collected Vissions. Parking it on an objective was a stroke of genius, if somewhat dirty, and I’m ashamed to say I didn’t think of this straight off the bat. Nothing was going to shift that and it was big enough to make sure no enemy could get within the required distance to contest it.

Rich: Great game, loved seeing this huge wave of mechanised Space Wolves charging at us! But what did I learn.

Well first off I screwed up big time with the rules for melts-bombs. I assumed they had the USR melta which means that anything with armoured ceramite denies them the additional d6 for armour penetration. However, melta-bombs are armourbane which means they still get the extra d6 for penetration. Doh! Its funny as by the end of the game i must have hit that Spartan with 40-50 melts-bombs and still didn't roll a 6 to glance a single time - fate was against me whatever that time!

The 15 Breachers with Sgt TH and an Apothecary plus Sigismund are fearsome against infantry, and they are good against armour too (when you remember the armourbane rule!!).

My terminators are brutal in CC too, they decimated any units they touched and it was great to see them ruling the day, until that pesky demolisher round had me taking 6 off the table at once! (Great shot Dave!).

This was my first game with the Quad Mortars. They got off a couple of turns hammering Dave's troops. Sadly for me Dave targeted them relentlessly with the Fellblade and they didn't make it past turn three. One thing to note is that they need to be within 36" of enemy so you have to much them reasonably far forward. I must say I liked them, if they had been left unhindered I think they would have made a fantastic support weapon, as it was they got a few kills and kept Dave's big guns away from my troops for a few turns - not bad.

Lascannon team - this game was almost enough to convince me to out them in a bunker. Although they lasted throughout and killed a few things. They are super pricey and I may field less than ten in the future.

All in all v happy with my force and if I can remember the USRs that are important they will do just fine I think! Well played Space Wolves!